CONTINENTAL CIRCUS

This is, hands down, the WORST soundtrack album to a French documentary about motorcycle racing that I've ever heard. Of course, since it's also the only one I've heard, that also makes it the best. In reality, it is pretty good, much better than one might expect from its description. The lengthy "Blues For Findlay" (dedicated to motorcyclist Jack Findlay) which bookends the album is clearly its centerpiece, and while the vocal version that opens is a little overlong relative to its musical and lyrical substance, the instrumental reprise that closes the album is one of the best space rock jams that Gong ever recorded, going from its paranoid main theme to a really psychedelic 11/4 section with ambient glissando-ish guitars (an effect later copied by future Gong guitarist Steve Hillage on his own solo work), back to 6/4, then a section in 4/4 where the instruments all imitate an engine starting up, all leading up to the actual blues part which only lasts for four bars before rushing ahead into its ominous, chaotic coda. While I'm not usually all that impressed by Daevid Allen's guitar playing, he really pulls out everything he's got to make this an engaging experience, and Didier Malherbe's sax wailings and Pip Pyle's military drumming back him up supremely.

Of the two tracks that lie in between the blues, "What Do You Know" is another cool jam, albeit not as consistently interesting as the album closer and also disappointingly devoid of Malherbe's saxophone for the most part (the final 10 seconds where it suddenly turns into a country song is hilarious though). Finally, "Continental Circus World" is a not too useful sound collage but hey, give them some credit: how many soundtrack albums do you know that include a track which is basically four minutes of just literal audio from the movie it's scoring?

This album is an overlooked jam in my opinion and it's an outrage that no one has deemed this worthy of officially re-releasing on CD.